vrijdag 21 maart 2014

Military exercises and arms

In recent weeks, the U.S. Africa Command annual regional exercise and operation Flintlock took place. Thousand of soldiers from eighteen countries cooperated in this international event for Special Forces.
This year the aim of the exercise was to strengthen the position of the
participating countries in two North African regions : the southern
border region of Libya and the border region of Nigeria. Both are
important for arms trafficking and in both areas Islamic terrorists are
operating. Of the eighteen participating countries, nine were from West
Africa (see map) and nine from Western Europe and North America.

The African participants were Algeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali,
Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal. Several of these
countries struggle with internal conflicts. In Mali, Dutch troops will
participate in the UN peacekeeping force MINUSMA (United Nations
Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali) to collect
intelligence. In Senegal, Special Forces are fighting already for
decades against an independence uprising in the southern province Casamance. According to Dutch defence bi-weekly Defensiekrant,
the Dutch and the Senegalese troops are special partners during
Flintlock. Another participant, Nigeria, which often leads African Union
peacekeeping missions, has a military with a domestic problem with human rights, to put it mildly.

Flintlock has implications for the arms market. Military cooperation
increases the ability to sell arms. While you exercise, you acquaint
with the military leadership and developed contacts that pave the way
for commercial contacts. Because of the common struggle against the
jihadists, even the poorest countries of North Africa have become arms
markets for the West. The purchase by Mauritania, one of the poorest countries in the world, of an undisclosed number of Augusta/Westland helicopters, may serve as an example .

The main buyer of Dutch weapons in North Africa, Morocco is also
participating in Flintlock. Morocco takes a fifth position in a ranking of customers for Dutch weapons,
with over half a billion euro of military sales to Rabat over the last
ten years. Only at position 37 is the second North African country, Algeria. In 2013, this country bought arms valued 34 million euro's.

West Africa is not the only remarkable training area for the Dutch
military. According to an overview recently sent to the Parliament by
Minister of Defence Hennis, Dutch troops also find partners for
exercises, education and training in e.g. Gabon and Peru (jungle
training opportunities) and in Jordan and Israel (training facilities
for Special Forces).